While the numbers appear to have fallen short of last year’s total of $11,000, those who helped raise the preliminary sum of $7,500 for this year’s Terry Fox “Marathon of Hope” here Sunday afternoon clearly showed they support the ongoing fight against cancer.
The top pledge-getter once again was Marj Hull-Katerick, who achieved her goal of $2,003 this year—and also topped her personal goal of raising more than $10,000 for Terry Fox in her lifetime.
“I went out in the rain, in the heat. It wasn’t easy,” Hull-Katerick said before Sunday’s event.
“And then, there was the dogs,” she chuckled.
Hull-Katerick said her passion to raise money for the cause, which has grown from a respectable $800 in pledges in 1997 to $2,002 in 2002, took root as she followed Fox’s heroic cross-country trek in 1980—only to find out cancer had spread to his lungs.
“I felt such compassion for the young man, whom I had never met,” she remarked. “At this time and point, my life was very hectic. I made a promise to myself that when I had the opportunity, I would help him to achieve his goal and his dream come true to cure cancer.
“God willing, next year I will start working on canvassing for the next $10,000.”
Her secret to raising that money? “I think I’m well-known and well-liked,” she noted modestly.
Local resident Joyce Gosselin again collected the second-highest amount of pledges for the local Terry Fox Run ($1,288).
“I’ve been working hard the past three weeks,” she remarked, adding the mix of hot and cold, wet weather this summer slightly hindered the time she spent canvassing, which she started at the beginning of July.
“I was going for $1,100, but I got $1,200,” said Gosselin, noting this total was an all-time high for her (she had raised $1,075 last year).
That spirit also shone through in the eyes of Rhonda Spuzak, an Alberton resident who had thyroid cancer seven years ago, and to whom this year’s “Marathon of Hope” was dedicated.
“When Vanessa [Hebert, executive director of the Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau and organizer of the Terry Fox Run here] contacted me, I was very honoured,” said Spuzak as she walked along the riverfront Sunday—her husband, Corey, sons, Brant, two, and Nolin, five, and other family members moving with, or just ahead of, her.
“I said, ‘I’m not worthy,’” she added. Spuzak was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 1996, but fortunately overcame the affliction with no long-term damage.
“If you’re going to have a battle with cancer, it’s no so bad to have thyroid cancer,” she noted, adding most thyroid cancers are very curable.
In fact, in younger patients, most forms of thyroid afflictions can be expected to have better than a 95 percent cure rate if treated appropriately.
Several members of her family also have battled various forms of the disease, noted Spuzak, including her grandfather, Gaston Godbout, and grandmother, Darlene Godbout, and her husband’s grandmother, Gladys Whalen.
She added she thought the Terry Fox Run was a great cause—and an important community event.
Still, Hebert said she would have liked to see a bigger fundraising total.
“We have a rough idea of how much we raised, but that doesn’t include how much Ed and Arnie have raised, and some of the merchandise we sold,” she noted.
Hebert was referring to Ed Katona and Arnie Johnsrud, who currently are biking to Minneapolis and back to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation.
“I was a little disappointed about the total. But on the bright side, when I called in the amount to the Terry Fox Foundation, they told me that, apparently, four communities elsewhere in the country stopped doing it this year.
“At least we’re keeping it going,” she reasoned.
“When you have people who are really committed to it [getting pledges], you can really do a lot,” added Hebert. “It’s great.”
Hebert also couldn’t say why this year’s run, which attracted 83 participants including about 10 or so from Pharmasave, drew about 10 fewer than last year and more than 40 less than in 2001.
As usual, the 10-km route started outside the Fort Frances Museum at 2 p.m., went down Portage Avenue to Front Street, then continued along the riverfront to Pither’s Point, where participants turned around and returned to the museum.
Before they stepped (or wheeled) over that starting line, participants warmed up with a brief workout led by Doris Barton and Kerri Tolen.
A total of 25 volunteers also helped out Sunday, taking registrations, giving people temporary Terry Fox tattoos, driving the pace car, setting up and tearing down the site, selling Terry Fox merchandise, and supplying food and beverages.
One of the youngest volunteers was eight-year-old Lyle Dolph, who was giving people temporary Terry Fox tattoos and painting faces.
“I’ve been volunteering for the last two years,” Dolph said while taking a break Sunday along with fellow volunteers Cassandra Spade and Reeanna Scott, both nine.
“But this year, I asked them to help me,” he added.
“It’s a good cause, and we wanted to have some fun,” said Spade.
A family barbecue at the Fort Frances Volunteer Bureau—free to the participants and volunteers—followed Sunday’s run.
Hebert noted this attracted a fair turnout, but admitted there was some confusion as to whether participants should end at the museum or go on to the Volunteer Bureau for barbecue.
She added it’s likely the run will start and end at the old CN station next year.
In related news, Katona left Sunday for his week-long bike trip to Minneapolis and back.
His wife, Marg, said Monday that he had departed at 6 a.m., alongside Johnsrud, a former Stratton resident now living in Winnipeg. They’re expected to return here Saturday.
Katona raised about $1,400 for the Terry Fox Run last year on a bike trip from here to Kenora and Dryden and back.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
